AINSWORTH. 301 published a particular account in a book entitled "An Animadversion to Mr. Richard Clifton's Advertisement, who, under pretence of answering Mr. Chr. Laune's book, bath published another man's private letter, with Mr. Francis Johnson's. Answer thereto. Which letter is here justified ; the answer thereto refuted ; and the true cause of the lamentable breach that hath lately fallen out in the English exiled church at Amsterdam, manifested," 1613.. The occasion of this breach appears to have been a difference of opinion respectin&church discipline. Upon this division, asecond congregation was raised at Amsterdam under the superintendence of Mr. Ainsworth, who is said to have been succeeded by the famous Mr. John Canoe, author of marginal references to the Bible.+ Mr. Ains- worth's enemies, to cast an odium on his memory, have been pleased to say, that, after his death, his people con- tinued many years without a pastor, and without the admi- nistration of the ordinances of baptism and the Lord's supper ; and that they were rent by another division, one half following Mr. Johnde Cluse, and the other Mr. Canne.$ But these representations, evidently designed to reproach these persecuted people, are unsupported by sufficient evidence, and several particulars are denied and refuted by one who lived in those times, and obtained the most correct' information.§ With regard to Mr. Ainsworth himself, he is reproachfully charged with having changed his opinions from a conformist to a separatist, and from a separatist to a conformist, no less than six times; but, as there does not appear the least shadow of truth in the charge, the deserved odium will doubtless fall upon its bigoted author.ii It is a circumstance which deserves to be recorded to the honour of Mr. Ainsworth, that in the midst of the above unhappy controversies, in which his ownpen was actively employed, lie preserved a meek and true christian spirit. Though he is represented by his enemies to have bee_n extremely rigid, intemperate, and severe, the contrary is very evident. Mr. John Paget having challenged him to a disputation upon pointsof church discipline, Mr. Ainsworth, in a letter dated July 12, 1617, returned the following mild and peaceable answer :-" If any thing pass betwixt " you and me about those points, you shall be the first Life of Ainsworth, p. 28-38. .4 Neal's Puritans, vol. ii. p. 45. t Bailie's Dissuasive, p. 15.-Paget's Answer to Best and Davenport, p.134.- gel's Defence, p. 33. § Cotton's Congregational Churches, p. 8. pailie's Vindication,p. 7.
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